It is more Raff-like--not in effect but in conception--than anything he has done.

There are four movements: "In a Haunted Forest," "Summer Idyl," "The Shepherdess' Song," and "Forest Spirits," together with a supplement, "In October," forming part of the original suite, but not published until several years later.

The work, as a whole, has atmosphere, freshness, buoyancy, and it is scored with exquisite skill and charm; but somehow it does not seem either as poetic or as distinguished as one imagines it might have been made.

It is carried through with delightful high spirits, and with an expert order of craftsmanship; but it lacks persuasion--lacks, to put it baldly, inspiration.
Passing over a sheaf of piano pieces, the "Twelve Virtuoso Studies" of op.

46 (of which the "Novelette" and "Improvisation" are most noteworthy), we come to a stage of MacDowell's development in which, for the first time, he presents himself as an assured and confident master of musical impressionism and the possessor of a matured and fully individualised style..